August Strindberg : a Pioneer in Modern Drama August Strindberg Is
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Tikrit University College of Education English Department Modern Drama Dr. Awfa Hussein Al-Doory, PhD August Strindberg : A Pioneer in Modern Drama August Strindberg is a Swedish playwright and novelist. Belonging to humble origins, Strindberg led unfortunate life in a sense that it was fueled by many sad events as well as recurrent failure. As a result of the unhappy life he lived, he was threatened with insanity. As a playwright, he contributed much to the modern World Drama. His most famous plays are The Father, Miss Julie, The Road to Damascus, and A Dream Play. While he practices naturalism is his plays The Father and Miss Julie, he introduces the ideas of expressionistic drama in The Road to Damascus, and A Dream Play. In The Stronger Strindberg shows his genius in writing a quart d' heure (one act play) which had been employed by the Theatre Libre in Paris. A quart d' heure is a form of short plays that present complex ideas. As such, The Stronger is a play about the struggle between the sexes. Furthermore, it uses minimal stage decoration. This is recognized in the play whose events are set in a corner of a women's café; two small iron tables, a red worsted shag sofa, and some chairs. The Stronger is one act play whose conflict is led by two characters only, Mrs. X and Miss Y. The play's dialogue between the two takes the form of a dramatic monologue in a sense that Mrs. X is the speaker and Miss Y is the listener. Since the play is entitled The Stronger, one may wonder who is the stronger, Mrs. X or Miss Y. As far as Mrs. X is the only speaker, one would think that she is "the stronger," but ironically, she is not. Mrs. X ironically thinks that the love affair between her husband and Miss Y will make her marriage stronger. She says, "that only gave me a stronger hold on my husband," but actually her knowledge of the affair will eventually weaken the relationship. .